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Veterans Heading to Law Schools, With Nonprofit’s Help

Law school final exams next month might seem like the worst thing in the world to some law students.

Not Eric Gilliland.

He has a different way of thinking about law school after being in the U.S. Army Special Operations for six years, deploying to Jordan and Turkey. Veterans who have deployed and seen combat have learned to cope with “mountains of stress,” he said.

“Our perspective allows us to look beyond what most law students have experienced,” said Gilliland, a student at College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia. “Many of us are more disciplined and capable of handling far more responsibility.”

But those skills don’t always translate on a law school application. Admissions officers may pass over applicants with military backgrounds, failing to appreciate how they can become competitive law students and strong lawyers.

That’s where Service to School comes in. The nonprofit helps veterans parlay their military service to gain entry into the nation’s top law schools and other higher-education institutions.